About 11:30 last night I got woke up by a big disturbance down stairs. Turned on the light and took a look, my half wild cat had drug in, (or found inside) the biggest rat I have ever seen, and they were having a knock down drag out fight in the living room. This cat I have is no sissy cat, it is about 20th generation Indian reservation cat and was born and raised outside, so it can take care of itÂ’s self around most anything. The rat had a body at least 10 inches long must have weighed 2 pounds. Well, it was a real fight to watch, lots of growling and hissing and rat squeals, and more than a little blood and fur getting thrown around. The Wife had gotten up by now and was not too pleased by all the mess, most every thing was off top of the piano and one lamp was on the floor. Finally the rat climbed up the back of a straight-backed chair and was fending off the cat, which, by this time, had better thoughts about eating the rat. Now, I had had a little more than a few drinks, but I needed to get rid of the rat, so I grabbed my .177 air rifle and, from the top of the stairs, shot the rat off the back of the chair. The pellet went right through the rat and into a bag of papers sitting in front of the piano. This was good because if I had shot the piano I would have been in more trouble than the rat. If you have never shot rats before I can tell you they can take a lot of abuse and keep going, this one was no exception. When I shot, the cat ran out the door, and the rat jumped on the floor and hid under an end table by the couch. By now the Wife is clearly not happy with the current state of things. Now I had to figure out what to do about the rat. I had a couple of choices, I had a 45 ACP, which I think would have done the job, and a 22-250, which I know would have worked. However I decided that a .177 air pistol would probably be more house friendly, so I grabbed it and a hand full of pellets. Well, after getting a flash light and pulling the end table out a little I finally got the rat cornered, I put the pistol down flat on the floor and shoved it under the table shelf, the rat opened his mouth to bite the barrel and I shot at the same time. I hope I never have to re-arrange the furniture because there is a lot of rat blood on the carpet under that table now. So, the evening hunt done, I had one more drink and went to bed. Today the Wife is still not too happy with either me or the cat. Larry
